Erin and Padraic (near as I can tell it’s pronounced “Patrick,” but cool spelling, eh?) are probably two of the nicest, most genuine people I’ve ever worked with. Real Strawberry Road folks. They’re having their wedding August 7th at the same vineyard Jennie and I did a style shoot last year, check it out here! We got together yesterday to go over details for their big day. They didn’t have any engagement shots, so as we did a quick walk around the main house discussing the details of their wedding day we put together a nice collection of images that I think really sums up their collective personality 
We had a ton of fun! I think I might even use the term cajoling to describe our tongue-in-cheek, albeit impromptu shoot. Thanks guys, I had a blast. PS, the last image is my favorite…
Before I go on about the wedding of Beth and Matt at the Mystic Seaport, I’d like to send special thanks to my partner Jennie and photographer Robyn Ivy. They really helped me (Dave) out of a jam!
With that out of the way let me tell you about the wedding! Here are some teasers from our May, 22nd wedding of Beth and Matt. The day couldn’t have been nicer and they were both fantastic to work with. From a photographer’s point of view the wedding was a bit of a challenge. You see, in this day and age there are so many images that our clients expect to see. Whether it’s ‘bride looks up into lens from seated position’ or ’shot of the groom that somehow incorporates his lifelong passion for curling,’ there are images that brides and grooms want to feel as though they have a complete photographic record of their special day. Beth and Matt stressed they wanted none of that! Photojournalistic with no excessive frills, period. Well, the Strawberry Road team did a great job of catching that and with some gentle coaxing, we even got some posed shots that I think they will be thrilled to have! Oh, and for those of you who think you know how to rock, the last image proves you can’t rock THIS hard!
Fox Run Vineyard, what else can I say… The heart of what New England wine making embodies. Gorgeous colonial plantation style home, a vineyard in the back and fantastic, hospitable owners to boot! What a fantastic place for us to shoot. We were met by the owners with open arms; and they were pouring wine from the get go. Our models for this shoot, Jay and Shannon, didn’t embibe until later in the shoot, but those on hand, runners and owners alike, all had a glass of Fox Run touched wine (Fox Run grows grapes that are added to other vineyard’s wine to enhance flavor) before the first slap of a shutter! It was a fun shoot in the warmth and serenity of a true New England winery. Thanks to all who participated. Enjoy the images…
Our summer long wedding dress spectacular is still popping up on Strawberry Road. This dress was one of the 5 from our Midsummer Night’s dress shoot. It’s funny, the weather this summer has been downright awful. If it wasn’t raining it was about to. Things were damp, mucky and just plain dismal. It’s no wonder that the idea to shoot this dress with such a stunning male model at an Old Lyme beach seemed so inspired at the time. We were wondering for days how to shoot this dress before we returned it to it’s bride and then one morning, the sun came out. I called Jennie and said, lets get this dress to the beach, it will be beautiful! Well, we shot it, we loved the shots and now looking at them I realize they were just great shots of the dress at a small beach in Old Lyme. Funny how perception can be so influenced by your situation…
The Golden Lamb Buttery located in my hometown of Brooklyn, CT is a dream setting for a classic, pastoral New England wedding. Inside the restaurant is an ecclectic experience where history and the present come together in an atmosphere of comfort and warmth. Jennie and I wanted to capture that feeling with the images from our shoot that day. Amanda and Dave (our bride and groom, respectively) spent an afternoon with us setting a scence of beauty and elegance set against this classic New England Treasure. Go deeper into the blog for more on our lovely bride’s flowers…
We at Strawberry Road had decided long ago to try to be as carbon neutral a company as possible. In doing so, we had investigated the possibility of solar, geothermal, even hydrogen power to run our studios. It wasn’t until Jennie took a backpacking excursion through europe that culminated with tobagganing in the alps that she realized we could use tiny elephants on treadmills to power the studios. (She was taken by Hannibal’s story and well, way to think outside the box Jennie!) Anyhow, the tiny elephants have worked out very well for us. However, in true Jurassic park fashion, chaos theory has reared its ugly head and caused major issues for us here at Strawberry Road…
In all seriousness, this is what we came up with for the ShootStyle photo assignment titled “the moment after.” Nobody ever said we were normal…
If your french is rusty like mine, you can still recognize that the word cake isn’t in the post title. So if you’d like to spoil another great phrase from history follow this link. Now, if like me you are a huge fan of cake (breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert, snack, whenever!) you’ll agree that this great food is great anytime. Now the only thing better than cake is cake done right. Kristen and Jen at Sugarbelle Cakes and Confections do that and in my opinion, probably better than just ‘done right.’ It’s a whole new level of wow where taste and presentation take the art of confections to a new level…
Wedding dresses to me, have a personality all their own. At least they do since Jennie and I have been loaned eight of them. Each dress gains a nick-name as we begin to work with it and muster ideas about where models should showcase them. The dress in the picture after the jump is one that gained a nickname for me as soon as I saw it. Having never seen it worn, nor ever seeing an image of the bride in this cute little number, I can assign a personality to it unhampered by preconceptions. Jennie laughed at my name for the dress, but I think it’s grown on her because it has certainly stuck. Click more for the jump…
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Once in awhile Jennie and I will have a big idea. The Midsummer Night’s dress shoot was one of those. The idea, 5 dresses hanging over a beautiful stream. Smoke blown into the trees was to capture the streaming sunlight painting ethereal rays over the scene. Well, mother nature didn’t agree with our plan. A calm early morning gave way to an unreliable, omni-directional breeze. No amount of smoke would fill the canopy and if it did, it would have found it’s way in front of the dresses ruining the image. It did work for one image…click on ‘more’ below the image for the rest of the story…
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Jennie and I had an idea, shoot brides and grooms in controlled situations that showcase some of our fantastic local venues. It’s a chance for us to work with vendors, models, and venues while creating some great images. Here’s what we’ve learned, working with venues, not terribly difficult, all we had to do was ask. Working with models, again not so difficult, all we had to do was ask. Then it dawned on us…wedding dresses…where could we find wedding dresses for different models for the different shoots? Before we started trying bridal vendors Jennie told me to let her try something. I waited and by the time a few days had passed Jennie called me elated, “I think I’ve got eight dresses for us!” Jennie had put a post up on facebook and the call was answered. A bunch of generous friends offered up their nuptial accouterments, (i.e. beautiful gowns) We got the idea that we wanted to shoot the gowns themselves, no models, just the gowns themselves. That’s when the theme ‘A midsummer night’s dress,’ came to fruition…
This shoot was going to be big, an actual production. The basic idea behind the shoot was to capture something surreal and make the dresses the stars. This shoot is kicking off what we hope to be several shoots showcasing each dress somewhere different and unique. That idea aside here is what we came up with: Hang the dresses majestically over a flowing brook, pump smoke into the sky to catch rays of light and light accordingly. The setup took two days. Day one, my 3 year-old son and I went down to the brook to clear some paths to the water so we could maneuver for setup and shooting. Later that day my assistant [read: friend] Erik showed up to help hang the rope…
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